Baker High presents 'Curtains' this weekend

Curtains is a musical who-dun-it while doing it - The year: 1959. The place: Boston's Colonial Theatre. The action: an opening night performance of a new musical of the Old West called Robbin' Hood.

During the finale, lead actress (and faded movie star) Jessica Cranshaw hits a sour note. Or two. Or three. She really can't sing, can't dance and can't act - something evident to the rest of the cast, the producers and the first night audience. As she takes her bow, she collapses, (gracefully for once) and is quickly, to everyone's relief, rushed off to the hospital. There is an immediate interest in replacing her even temporarily, when the news comes that they may need a more permanent arrangement.

Enter Homicide Detective Lt. Cioffi whose appearance and investigation sets off a chain reaction of maneuvers and counters. The show, of course, must go on, and on it goes with new cast members, new numbers and even Cioffi - an amateur thespian himself - getting into the act. It's an immense puzzle of a crime with romance (as in every good detective story) thrown in for good measure. And it's no puzzle at all that Curtains, which opened in March of 2007 for 511 performances, received multiple award nominations.

"Curtains" Cast

Ryan Sparkes as Lieutenant Frank Cioffi

Ali Niemiec as Niki Harris

Ashley Squairs as Georgia Hendricks

Marissa McLean as Carmen Bernstein

Brian Scott as Aaron Fox

Nick Augello as Christopher Belling

David Kahrs as Sidney Bernstein

Emily Gell as Bambi Berne't

Robert Kahrs as Daryl Grady

Sean Honsinger as Bobby Pepper

Stephen Moynihan as Oscar Shapiro

Cheryl Chapman as Joanie Harmon

Mackenzie Polzin as Jessica Cranshaw

David Magowan as Detective O'Farrell

Colin Keating as Sasha Iljinsky

John Arquette, III as Harv Freemont

Stephanie Dalaba as Roberta Wooster

Megan Mahar as Mona Page

Matt Noll as Randy Dexter

Ali Niemiec, left, as Niki Harris, and Ryan Sparkes, as Lieutenant Frank Cioffi, examine a gun in a scene from Baker High School's production of the musical "Curtains."